Last weekend, a man in Dearborn, Missouri learned he will spend the rest of his life in prison after admitting to molesting his own daughter. Incredibly, though, residents in this town halfway between Kansas City and St. Joseph are rallying behind this monster–while demonizing a sexual assault victim.
In 2013, Darren Paden was arrested and charged with molesting his daughter for more than a decade. He began watching pornographic movies with his daughter sometime in 2001 and 2002, when she was five or six years old. After one of those movies, he molested her for what would be between 200 and 300 times over the next decade. The victim didn’t realize what was happening to her until she sat through a middle school presentation on inappropriate touching.
Paden confessed his despicable crimes to Platte County deputies only two hours into his interrogation. Yet, according to Platte County prosecuting attorney Eric Zahnd, Paden played a double game for the next two years. He wrote letters to his daughter and his relatives apologizing for his debauchery. However, he not only refused to plead guilty, but told anyone who would listen that his daughter was lying.
That game ended in August, when he pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy involving a victim younger than 12 years old. However, Paden’s campaign of deceit had some effect. WDAF-TV in Kansas City interviewed several people in Dearborn on the day Paden pleaded guilty. Incredibly, some people thought the charges were just rumors despite Paden’s confession. Not something that a sexual assault victim would want to read.
Judge James Van Amburg received letters from 16 people asking for leniency. Among them were a trustee at the church where Paden was a deacon, members of the local school board, and a bank president. The trustee said that he thought Paden only “admitted to things he did not do” under pressure from deputies. It was to no avail. On Friday, Van Amburg sentenced Paden to 50 years in prison–all but assuring that the 51-year-old Paden will die behind bars.
At sentencing, the victim revealed that she has been horribly demonized over the last two years. She told the court that she feels “unwanted” and “unwelcomed” in her own town, and has to deal with being “called a liar every day.” Even worse, she fears that someone will tamper with her food if she sets foot in a recently-opened restaurant. She’s been under so much stress that at one point, she stayed home from work for three months.
She also had a hard question for Paden’s supporters:
“To say you support someone who had done this sort of thing makes me wonder how some would react if a son/daughter told you they were a victim of these behaviors. Would you sign a petition then? Would you write letters of support?”
She went further in an interview with The Kansas City Star, saying that she has been shunned by a number of people who once came up and talked to her. She even revealed that a woman who had a house for rent refused to rent to her after finding out who she was. While her mother believes her and others support her, she’s taken aback by “the people who refuse to believe me.” She refers to people like her great-great aunt, Dixie Wilson, who openly admits she doesn’t think anything happened–but would “feel sorry for the girl” if it did.
Zahnd is dumbfounded as well. He wondered how it was possible for many “pillars of this community” would rally behind a monster rather than a sexual assault victim–especially when there was no doubt that Paden was guilty.
This attitude reminds me of what happened to Daisy Coleman, a girl from Maryville who was sexually assaulted by local football star Matthew Barnett in 2012 and left to fend for herself in 22-degree weather. Incredibly, Daisy and her mother were subjected to a horrible campaign of vilification, and were forced to leave town. Soon afterward their former house was burned down–and the Colemans believe it was arson.
Prosecutors initially claimed that they couldn’t move forward because the Colemans wouldn’t cooperate–which seems incredible given how they were demonized in the community. However, after a national outcry, a special prosecutor reopened the case, and in January Barnett pleaded guilty to child endangerment.
If I had been Zahnd, I would have told the people of Dearborn, “If anyone even thinks of doing harm to this girl, my office will come down on you with hobnail boots.” It is simply unacceptable that a sexual assault victim should have to fear being demonized in this way. Period.
